


Love is Leverage (The I Missed Remix)

by navaan



Category: Suicide Squad (2016)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Introspection, Manipulation, POV Female Character, POV Outsider, Remix, Women In Power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-24 19:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12019020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Amanda prides herself on knowing everything.





	Love is Leverage (The I Missed Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alamorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alamorn/gifts).
  * Inspired by [all my friends](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9204707) by [alamorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alamorn/pseuds/alamorn). 



Amanda prides herself on knowing everything.

Everything worth knowing, that is.

Leverage. That's what she knows and that's what she knows to look for.

Everyone has a skeleton in at least one of their well hidden closets. Slipping up is human and human failure is the one thing Amanda Waller can always count on. It means everyone has something that can be used against them and it can be found. There are no secrets that can't be uncovered. And what can be uncovered can be used.

As a woman in her position, she knows everything about turning even the most innocent piece of information into _leverage_. It's good business, but even better politics. Politics are her game.

She hasn't worked her way up from political science major to intelligence officer to head of her very own agency - and quite literally so, as the newly founded agency put in charge of research had been simply called "The Agency" for a couple of years - without learning a thing or two about people.

Most of them she reads like a book.

Only some are a challenge and she's been very good at keeping those at arm's length and out of her business.

But it's the rise of superpowered gods and goddess fighting it out on national TV that truly gives her what she needs: a threat she can use.

Folders and folders of intel are gathered and Amanda is not against getting her hands dirty to get more. She goes out to get her information herself when she needs to, precisely _because_ she needs to. 

Leverage works best when only few people have the lever.

Gotham City has been one of the fruitful grounds of the new era of danger and Amanda has been looking. Smart and prepared like herself the Bat has managed to stay under the radar of everyone who isn't right out _looking_. But only fools believe he's an urban legend, a myth spun by Gotham PD and the desperate citizens who stand on the sidelines when more and more gang wars and always new colorful powered criminals threaten their lives and homes.

Years ago perhaps Amanda felt some kinship with them - the powerless and fearful.

She does understand their fears, even though she has learned to leave them behind.

Powers won't leave now that they've become part of their world though.

But they can be controlled.

They can be harnessed.

And as always the magic word is _leverage_.

Like in all her endeavors Amanda chooses her candidates carefully.

Satisfaction is what she feels when she goes through the files of her candidates. Opportunities are written all over the manila folders that only have the essential information.

There are some current Belle Reve inmates at the top of her list. Floyd Lawton, Harleen Quinzel, Chato Santana all bring power and some infamy to the table that she will need for the new Task Force X. She's considering Waylon Jones. Some others might fill the gaps. The speeding new hero in Central City has filled a new meta human prison wing with new candidates, as he keeps making enemies with exactly the kind of speed he uses to put them down.

The Bat's playground seems to be the most fruitful, though Amanda already has her own plans to ensure clout and "accountability".

"You're serious about this?" her current aid asks, when she gets a look at the file of "Enchantress". Poor little June Moone.

Amanda laughs. "I'm always serious." She stacks the file of Flagg on top of it.

* * *

Of the bunch, Floyd Lawton is easiest. He's a sociopathic killer who turned his uncanny ability to hit a mark into a well paid business career, but Amanda knows what brought him to Belle Reeve. And it's not only the Batman. It's his daughter.

A daughter he cares for.

Love is leverage.

She counts on that and Lawton does not disappoint.

They give all of them _incentives_ to do what is asked of them and make sure self-preservation instinct gets them in line.

"They're still criminals," Flag reminds her.

" _That_ ," she says, "is why they're expandable."

He shrugs, mouth closed tightly. Flag is loyal. Flag understands the need for the operation and he _thinks_ he understands his role in this operation.

That's as it should be.

She needs him to work poor Dr. Moone just Dr. Moone is working him and the Enchantress is working them both.

Love, after all, is leverage.

* * *

Things with Enchantress get out of hand, but Amanda wouldn't be Amanda if she had not planned for this. It's a crisis that calls out her Task Force X for the first time and getting Amanda out of a mess made by the ace she'd had up her sleeve is their first job.

It also gives Amanda some first hand peek of how well things are working with their team.

"Suicide Squad," is what Lawton calls it.

He works as well as she had previously expected; when it comes down to it guns for hire are contractors and she's holding his contract. He doesn't like it and he makes sure to let her know, but he plays along.

His incentive is strong.

He has a daughter to keep safe, to put in school - and to impress.

Nothing more, Amanda thinks, but it does not escape her notice that it's Gotham's unhinged crime queen, who takes the lead right beside Deadshot. And the others follow.

In a matter of hours some alliances have formed, some connections have been made.

That is more than she expected from a sociopathic bunch of ruthless killers.

Loyalty among thieves, she thinks.

But then the Joker interferes.

She knew he would be coming for his girl sooner or later. The hope of escape has been the carrot dangling in front of Harley's little white clown nose.

What she doesn't see coming is Lawton, letting Harley go. "I missed," he declares, satisfied expression all for Amanda.

But is it?

* * *

Enchantress running amok unchecked is not the plan, but it makes for a damn impressive marketing stunt, all things considered, because now not even the biggest skeptics doubt that Task Force X are a necessary evil. The world has become a crazy place.

The kind of crazy place that has Harley Queen back behind bars, asking for cappuccinos and lattes.

Joker is mobilizing.

And yet, Harley Quinn is still on the Squad.

"No trouble?"

Flag meets Amanda's gaze head on. "There is always trouble around here, m'am."

"Of course there is," she says, noting that he doesn't say anything about the way everyone is watching Deadshot and Quinn. Subtlety and Harley Quinn do not exactly go hand in hand, but there is nothing more to give her away than a small smile and the mere fact that she's _calm_ , _settled_ around Lawton.

That's new.

Lawton meets Amanda's eyes, calm and head on with the same unsmiling expression he wears every time. Misdirection.

She reads it like a book and smiles. Lawton's eyes narrow.

They both know the game has just changed.

Amanda prides herself on knowing everything.

At least the things worth knowing.

Today she's been given a glimpse of a new little weakness to exploit.

Love is leverage after all.


End file.
